Baron Strabolgi


Baron Strabolgi is a title in the Peerage of England supposedly created in 1318 for Scottish lord David of Strathbogie, 10th Earl of Atholl. Despite lack of evidence supporting its existence, it was called out of abeyance by the House of Lords in 1916. Whether it ever existed before then is open to serious dispute.

History

was imprisoned, stripped of his titles and ultimately executed for fighting against the English crown, but his son David of Strathbogie, 10th Earl of Atholl had his titles restored by Edward II of England sometime between 21 August 1307 and 20 May 1308. He was made Constable of Scotland but stripped of his Scottish titles by 1314 by Robert the Bruce after rebelling against the Scottish king.
According to a 1914 House of Lords' decision, Atholl was called by hereditary writ under the barony of Strabolgi, inheritable by heirs general of his body. According to the Lords' decision, upon the death of David de Strabolgi, the third Lord Strabolgi in 1369, the barony fell into abeyance between his daughters and co-heirs Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Percy, and Philippa, who married Sir John Halsham.
In 1498, the barony vested upon a sole heir, Sir Edward Burgh, the de jure 4th Baron Strabolgi. It fell into abeyance again upon the death in 1602 of his grandson.
Burke's Peerage is incredulous of the 1914 House of Lords decision affirming that Atholl was called to Parliament as Baron Strabolgi "despite the absence of any writ of summons for him to the English Parl of 20 Oct 1318 or genuine evidence of his sitting in it." Burke's notes that "even later writs of summons, however, were worded to 'David Strabolgi, comiti Athol;' rather than domini."
The Complete Peerage declines to list it, on the grounds that it did not exist before the 20th century.

Barons Strabolgi (1318)

The heir presumptive is the present holder's third cousin, Hamish Kenworthy Malcolm.